


Green Flame Burns Bright

by RoxyPop



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Adult Content Will Be Less Light In Future Updates, Angst, Calliope's fundamental misunderstandings of human biology, Calliope's weird fake cockney accent that might not be fake, F/F, Motherhood, Older women trying to get back into the dating scene, Romance, Roxy's Panicked Inner Monologue, Very Light Adult Content
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-28
Updated: 2019-10-27
Packaged: 2021-01-05 04:03:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21207077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoxyPop/pseuds/RoxyPop
Summary: Candy!Roxy and Calliope restart their relationship after John and Roxy get divorced.





	Green Flame Burns Bright

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bakedpotatocat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bakedpotatocat/gifts).

It’s been years since Roxy has spoken to Calliope. She thinks about her all the time — thinks about how things might have been different, if she’d made different choices, been a different person. But she isn’t a different person, and she didn’t make those choices, and she has a child to raise and a family to repair her relationship with and... and it’s all just really fucking hard. She doesn’t want Harry Anderson to know that she’s crying herself to sleep every other night. She doesn’t want him to have to face the reality that being a single mother fucking sucks. Losing your husband sucks. Your best friend turning into an evil tyrant bitch sucks.

Lately, John’s come back. That’s been nice — he’s helping again, and so is Jake. Things have been looking up. And that makes Roxy think that, maybe, if that’s getting better, then maybe things with Calliope can get better too.

She picks up the phone with shaky hands. Why is she so nervous? (She knows why she’s so nervous.) It’s just Calliope. (It’s CALLIOPE.) She spent years with Calliope, she knows her. (She hasn’t spoken to her in so long she can’t remember the sound of her voice.) Just hit call. (What if she doesn’t want to reconnect?) Just type in the numbers, (what if she doesn’t want to forgive me?) and hit (what if she hates me?)

The phone is ringing. She pressed the button by accident. She screams and throws her phone across her bedroom.

“Mom?” Harry Anderson calls from somewhere in the house.

“Don’t worry about it, baby!” She responds, as she gets up and crawls across the floor to pick up her phone.

Oh, god. Calliope answered.

“Hullo? Roxy?”

Oh, fuck, oh, god, oh, shit, oh--

“Uh, hey, Callie!”

“Is everything all right?” The way her fangs catch on her lower lip makes it sound a little more like ‘everyfing,’ which only makes her weird fake cockney accent cuter. Fuck. Is Roxy blushing? She might be blushing.

“Yeah, yeah, everything’s good. Just, y’know, I was thinkin’ about you. ‘Bout us, and how we used to be.” Great, Roxy, just throw it all out there, show your cards 30 seconds in, great plan.

“Ah. I… I’m sorry for how things worked out,” says Callie.

What?

“What?? Why the hell are  _ you _ sorry, I’m the one who fucked up!”

“I-- What? Fucked up? Whatever do you mean, Roxy?”

“I threw fuckin’, however many years it was together--” It was seven years she was with Calliope. “--down the drain for a guy who, and y’know I love John, but buddy was kind of a shit husband!”

“Ah, yes. I’m… I’m sorry about that too. It’s hard not to feel like it’s all a bit my fault.”

“Your fault? Buddy, you got no business blamin’ yourself for John, okay.”

“Well, it’s just that--”

“Just nothin’!  _ I  _ made those choices, and it’s nobody’s fault but mine.”

There’s silence for a moment. It’s uncomfortable, like there’s something waiting to pounce out of the tiny speaker.

“So… What did you mean to call about?”

“Oh. I, uh, I wanted to see if you wanted to hang out sometime? Maybe go out for coffee?”

“Oh! Um.”

There’s some rustling that Roxy can’t place. Calliope doesn’t speak for nearly a minute. For a second, Roxy is terrified she’s just going to hang up on her. Oh, god, oh, god, she hates me, this is weird, she thinks I’m just desperate and-

“I would love to! I know someplace nice we can have a sit and chat.”

“Oh! Uh, awesome. Just text me the deets and I’ll meet you there, okay?”

“Sounds wonderful! Was that all?”

Roxy waits for a moment. Is that all?

“Uh… Yeah. Yeah, I think that’s all.”

***

A little less than a week later, Roxy is dressed to the nines and sitting in a sweet little coffee shop that’s managed to avoid most of the conflict by virtue of being  _ very _ out of the way. She feels very overdressed. Practically every other patron is sitting in casual clothes and here she is in a nice dress and caked in makeup. She wonders if she’s failed to communicate the purpose of this date, and then remembers that yes, she very much has, because she is a coward.

Somebody sits down at Roxy’s table and she nearly jumps out of her seat. She does, actually, standing straight up like she has something important to say, but it’s just Calliope, and she looks… Well, she looks practically the same, plus maybe a foot of height. She’s just as dressed up as Roxy as it happens, and Roxy can’t help but bust into a wide smile as she looks her up and down.

Oh, god, she’s blushing. Roxy is blushing so fucking hard, oh god oh christ.

“Hullo, luv,” Calliope offers with a little giggle. “Are you gonna sit back down or were you planning to stand the whole time?”

Roxy returns the giggle and sits back down. “Yeah, sorry, just, uh… Nervous. You know how it is.”

Calliope’s cheeks turn a little greener. “I do, yes.”

There’s a bit of silence, but it isn’t like the silence on the phone. It’s comfortable, gentle. The barista calls Roxy’s name, and it breaks her out of it.

“Oh, uh, I should grab that.”

“I’ll be right here when you get back.”

That knowledge is more comforting than Roxy knows how to qualify right now. She retrieves her coffee and sits down across from Calliope again, sipping her drink on occasion.

“I missed you, y’know,” Roxy whispers. Her lips are practically permanently smiling now, and she loves it. “I’ve… I’ve missed you for a long time. Also, I think I might be a lesbian?”

“Oh! I-- Really?” Callie responds. “But, John…”

“I gotta be honest, Callie, babe… I love John, but I don’t think I love him that way. Maybe I did? But honestly, I’m just swearin’ off boys forever ‘cuz I don’t got the STRENGTH to deal with them anymore.” She sighs.

“I’m so sorry, luv. If I had known I would have…” She trails off like she doesn’t know what to say.

“Callie, babe, you didn’t do anything wrong.” Roxy puts her hand atop Calliope’s on the table, and for a moment they lock eyes. Roxy bites her lip. Calliope’s eyes are the size of dinner plates, staring right into Roxy’s soul.

“I love you,” Roxy blurts out. “And I wanna date again, if that’s like, a thing you’re down with? I don’t know, you might-- you might hate me ‘cuz I ran out on Jane but I really still love you and I really, really wanna try again because holy shit you’re so fucking cute, and I-- I just--” Roxy stops because Calliope looks like she’s going to cry and suddenly panic sends her heart plummeting into her uterus.

“Oh, my god, I’m so sorry, we don’t have to babe, I was j--”

“No, no, dear! Please, I… I would love that. More than anything.” She’s definitely crying and Roxy realizes she is too.

“Um… Do you wanna take this somewhere more private?” Roxy asks.

Callie nods, reaching up to wipe the tears off her scales. Roxy dabs at her makeup with a napkin, and they leave the cafe arm in arm. The coffee sits on the table, unfinished.

***

They don’t even make it out of Roxy’s car when they arrive. It feels so right, kissing in the car like teenagers, like they were when they started their relationship. Calliope nips and sucks at Roxy's lips the way she knows Roxy has always loved, and Roxy is practically soaking through her tights. Lipstick stains Calliope’s fangs, and mascara runs down Roxy’s cheeks in rivulets because this is everything she’s wanted for so fucking long. She feels  _ passion _ again, raw and unfiltered as she draws her tongue along Calliope’s razor sharp teeth, tasting sugar and meat and  _ Callie _ .

When Calliope brings her utterly massive tongue into the mix, Roxy practically screams. Her hands are grabbing at Calliope’s head, running over soft, smooth scales and the little ridge that runs down her back, pulling her close. Her breath is shaky and unsteady, and her legs are pressing together so tightly they’re starting to fall asleep.

Roxy has to break the kiss. “H-hold on, hold on. I- We gotta get inside, I gotta make dinner and--and fix my makeup, oh my god.” She blanches when she sees what a mess she is in the rear-view mirror. She has a son! How is she supposed to explain this?

“Oh! Yes, um. Is it… Is it alright if I stay for the night?”

Roxy stops her fussing and looks at her with huge eyes.

“Yes! Yes, yes, holy fuck, please! I can introduce you, and we can all have dinner together!”

Calliope’s shoulders hike up and her smile brightens even more. Roxy leans over and kisses her cheek. 

“Okay, okay, we gotta get inside for real though,” says Roxy.

Roxy eases the door open. Harry Anderson isn’t in the front room, so for now the coast is clear. She steps inside, Calliope in tow, and slowly makes her way across the house… until her son steps out of his room.

“Hey, mom, what’s for-- Oh.” He looks at Calliope, a little dumbfounded and very obviously uncomfortable. “Uh… is… everything okay?” His voice squeaks a little bit as he asks.

“Yeah! Yeah, um. This is Calliope. She’s… an old flame, from before you were born, and we were just reconnecting a bit.”

“Blimey, the last time I saw you, you were just a larva! You’ve grown up so fast it feels like.” Roxy giggles a little bit and leans over to peck Calliope’s cheeks.

“Callie, humans don’t have larval stages!” she whispers.

“Oh, right! Sorry, it’s all a bit confusing for me.”

“Right… Okay. Um.” Harry Anderson looks… confused, and not really less uncomfortable.

“Dinner! Yes, dinner. Um…” Roxy lets out a little sigh. “What do you think about pizza?”

“Yeah, that works. I can get it if you’re… busy?”

“Oh, thanks, bud.” Roxy smiles and moves to pull him into a hug, kissing his forehead. “I’ll order it from the place you like, okay?”

“Okay, mom.” Harry hugs her back, then scurries back into his room.

“He seems so sweet,” Calliope says softly.

“Oh, he’s the best thing in the world,” Roxy responds, glancing fondly at his bedroom door.

She leads Calliope back to her bedroom and sits on the bed. She orders the pizza with haste, and she steps into the bathroom to wash the makeup off her face. When she returns, the strap of her dress is falling down her shoulder. She leans against the doorframe with her hips cocked and grins.

“Now… Where were we?”

**Author's Note:**

> I definitely intend to continue this at some point, but I hope you like this! I absolutely love these two so the opportunity to write them was wonderful.


End file.
